Delegates from 18 countries are attending an international conference on safety at sea in Cork where it has been revealed that, since the sinking of the cruise ship Costa Concordia, the main problem encountered during ship inspections has been with abandon ship and fire drills.
It is the 10th conference of the International Association for Safety and Survival Training – IASST – whose Chairman, Dmitrus Semjonovs, said that continuous research was being done by the organisation to improve safety at sea and advance the saving of lives by promoting safety and survival training.
The Chief Surveyor of the Irish Maritime Administration, Brian Hogan, said that encouraging personal responsibility for everyone at sea, from commercial to leisure, should be the main focus of maritime safety strategy.
The conference is being held at the National Maritime College in Ringaskiddy where the co-ordinator, Capt.Cormac MacSweeney, said that over the two days of discussions, response to emergency situations, from offshore operations to various aspects of shipping and small craft would be discussed. “Survival training is essential to safety at sea and that is vital to everyone who goes to sea.”